Should I upgrade tuners?

[Poolcat]

I have a Guild D25 from the early 70's. It has the original opened gear plates. They don't hold tuning very well and I'd like to swap in a set of Grover's. My plans are to keep the originals to swap back in at what time I decide to sell it but the holes would have to be enlarged. So I need to know if upgrading the tuners would seriously devalue this guitar. Or could it actually add value to a guitar of this vintage? Any advice would be appreciated.

[Speedy77]

Hey there! I recently did a resto project on a 60's acoustic guitar, and ran into a similar problem. My tuners were extremely dry, and didn't hold a tune very well. They also had two bent posts, which made me decide to purchase new ones. Unfortunately the tuners I had were smaller than todays popular size, so I was forced to use the originals or drill holes. Before I started drilling, I decided to see if I could fix up the old ones. I found this great site with a tutorial on reviving vintage mandolin tuners http://www.lutherie.net/tuner.maintenance.html which are luckily similar to the ones on my guitar. I followed the steps and now the tuners work perfectly, and I only had to spend about $7 on lubricant that I can use on other projects as opposed to the cost of new tuners. I'm not very familiar with your brand of guitar, but I would definitely recommend trying to fix up the tuners before drilling holes for new ones, it's definitely worth it.

[Poolcat]

Yo Speedy77, This is excellent and just what I was hoping to hear. I don't really have a problem with the open gears (although most contemporary axes have the sealed kind) as long as they work well. And they ARE the original so I feel I'm not forced to do a mod that I can't undo for the next owner. Thanks so much for your "Speedy" advice.